William DAVISON Obituary

Sail safely into the sunset Joe, you leave behind many memories, one we always remember was when he was representing The New Plymouth Yacht Club during the solo race in 1986, our ex son in law Graeme Francis took part & we received news that Graeme had struck a whale off Lord Howe Island & he was taking on water, we panicked & hurried along to the Mooloolaba Yacht Club where we saw Joe on duty in the look out tower, he calmly told us that it´s true that Graeme had struck a whale & was bailing out a bucket of water per hour, in Joes usual manner he assured us he was ok & making his way to Mooloolaba. It´s been a pleasure to have Known Joe, RIP.
Cliff & Audrey Rose.

A very good friend of my parent Don and Jocelyn Bellringer. As kids we visited Joe's boat yard on Sackville Sreet to view his creations on a regular basis, to our amazement. He hacksawed through 2 inches of steel on an old hay tedder of mine to form the rudder stock for one of his yachts. He said his time is very cheap. After completing the solo Trans Tasman yacht race he decided to circumnavigate the globe and according to his log he only used 30ltrs of fuel in the year that this took. A truer yachtsman and gentleman would be hard to find
Peter Bellringer

We´ve had many wonderful times with Joe. He was a mine of information about boats, sailing and navigation and we always valued his input. We´ve sailed south several time together and spent time chatting over meals at D´Urville Island and in Tasman Bay. Joe was always so happy at sea even if it was drifting along slowly. Fair winds Joe.

Farewell Joe. We have great memories of your yachting days and your excellent workmanship in building 'Viking', (Shearwater catamaran) in the 1950s. You were absolutely amazing.